Labor’s $4bn post-election dental scheme

KEY POINTS

The government has made good its promise to the Greens for a dental scheme for children and the poor.

The plan will cost $4 billion but the funds are yet to be found.

It is timed to begin after the federal election next year.

The Gillard government has less than three months to find close to $4 billion to fund a $2.7 billion dental scheme for children and a $1.3 billion dental top-up for adults on low incomes.

Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said the dental package was long overdue and one of the investments “that matter to a Labor government” along with increased spending on education, disability services and increasing the age pension.

To keep the budget in surplus the government has pledged to find savings to fund the new package.

Ms Plibersek would not comment on whether she would have to cut spending in other areas of the health portfolio. She said the savings will be worked out across government and “it will all be accounted for” in the mid-year economic forecast that must be released by November 8.

The Australian Dental Association said the redirection of federal funding to children and adults on low incomes or in rural areas would prove to be a sound investment because they would help prevent poor dental health later.

However, the opposition’s health spokesman, Peter Dutton, questioned whether the new proposals would ever see the light of day, describing them as an “unfunded $4.1 billion promise for a dental scheme Labor could not be trusted to deliver”.

The package announced yesterday delivers on a Labor undertaking to the Greens that helped secure support for the Gillard minority government. It means the government now has the backing from the Greens necessary to shut down the Chronic Disease Dental Program, which costs about $80 million a month. But the resulting savings have already been factored into forward estimates.

The Teen Dental program that began in 2008 will also be closed. This was expected to cost $458 million over four years but only a third of eligible teenagers had taken up the vouchers, so it has cost less than anticipated.

Under the new package, from January 2014 about 3.4 million children will have access to Medicare-funded dental treatment in either the public or private system. A fee schedule is yet to be agreed upon but the subsidised dental care would be capped at $1000 per child over two years.

Families eligible for Family Tax Benefit A would qualify. Ms Plibersek said this was a “very generous cut-off”, noting a two-parent family with two children earning $112,000 would be eligible.

Public dental services operated by the states will get a $1.3 billion funding injection over four years from July 2014. Another $225 million will be spent on dental services in rural and regional areas, to tackle workforce issues and provide extra services for indigenous people.

However, the extra money for adults who use the public dental service was contingent on state funding, Ms Plibersek said.

The NSW minister responsible for dental services, Kevin Humphries, said the delivery of the new funding was questionable, particularly as it is not due to begin until after the next federal election. Mr Humphries was also concerned about the decision to close the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme that was introduced in the last year of the Howard government.

Victorian health minister David Davis said the changes will leave a “massive cavity” in the state’s dental services for the chronically ill.

“We estimate the chronic dental disease is worth $170 million a year to Victoria,” he said. “The cuts are up front in this package and the good bits are on the never never.”

Ms Plibersek described the CDDS – which is not means-tested – as a “hopeless scheme”.

“Some people have got treatment that they’ve needed from the CDDS but it has been so massively used for over-servicing and, in some cases, outright rorting, that I can’t wait to see it closed,” Ms Plibersek said.

In February, the federal government’s expert advisory council recommended a $10 billion investment over the next four years. The government has committed to spending $4.6 billion over six years, including $515.3 million announced in the May budget for a blitz on public dental waiting lists and some workforce measures.

Greens senator Richard Di Natale said the dental package was one of the most significant reforms to the health sector since the introduction of Medicare.

“This is a huge win,” Mr Di Natale said. “What we’ve got now is many, many more millions of Australians who will now be able to access dental care and an investment in young kids.”